The #vintagesummerchallenge Day 17 prompt is Heritage. Heritage is a funny thing for me. Like many Americans, my whole family pretty much immigrated from somewhere else, and collective familial heritage pretty much disappears before the 1890s, where we know one branch of my Italian half came on a boat from the mountainous south. So here I am, in Italy, my birthplace, the origin of half of my family. I take so much from it—although I don't look it I identify best with my Italian bits—yet we all know so little. •
And a post-script: not summer, obviously, but I've only been to Italy twice in my life, and the other time I had no hair and couldn't walk and all the photos are … not easy to access.

I want you to tag someone that you believe in, someone you respect and care for 🙏. I say this because many of us grow up trying to prove ourselves to others when in fact the people we try to prove never paid us any mind in the first place.
I talk a lot about hope and connection, and respect, but it all starts with YOU. You come first, take care of yourself in order to take care of others. And I don't want you to agree for the sake of agreeing, but I really want you to AGREE because you do! Respect yourself and do the right thing, live to your potential and don't live your life dreaming of what could have been. Whoever you are. I respect you. I believe in you. I have faith in you. Now you have nothing to prove, show the world what you got ❤️🙏🙏
.
.
.
If I tagged you, I just to let you know that your words have inspired this post as well as my mindset. I have much to learn and it's because of you all that I set out to keep learning and moving forward.